Don't Flip Out!

Hannah loves to create things. Hand her some cardstock and scissors, and there's no telling what she'll come up with. Today she was sitting at the table, creating away while I was on the computer. She came up behind me and said, "Mom, how do you like them?"

So I turned around and looked down, and then I saw them.


I had that feeling that only a mom can have when you look at something like that that your child made and somehow feel proud, as if she's the most clever person you know. And honestly some days I think she is.

Still don't know what they are? Here, this will help.



Oh, but it gets better. Let me show you the entire ensemble.


And what's more, there are two of them!


They call themselves "Fashion Girls." In fact, you may have heard them in Wal-Mart earlier today. The same conversation, over and over and over again. It went something like this: "On 3, Millie. Ready? 1 . . . 2 . . . 3 . . ." Then they both yelled, "FASHION GIRLS!" as they threw their arms in the air and then wrapped their hot pink scarves around their bright yellow t-shirts.

So if you ever notice "Fashion Girls" in your clothing labels in 20 years, you can tell everyone, "I knew them back when . . . ."

Show & Tell: Adventures Week 1

Here they are . . . my big 4-year-old and my even bigger 7-year-old on their very first day of school!


This week we successfully completed our first week of 2nd grade. And what a wonderful week it was!

We started out by taking a closer look at the pledge of allegiance to see what we actually mean when we say it. Hannah did something unexpected that made this old homeschooling mama very proud! As we went through the pledge, we would stop and talk about any unfamiliar words or phrases. But before we would move on to the next word, she would go back to the very beginning and restate the whole thing using the new, more familiar words or phrases we had just talked about. So by the time we made it to the end, this is how her pledge of allegiance sounded:

I promise to be loyal to the flag of the United States of America and to the government run by the people for which it stands, one country under God, that cannot be divided, with freedom and fairness for all.

We worked throughout the day to make a red, white, and blue snack to kick off our study of America.


We served it after dinner that night, and it was delicious! Well worth the effort it took to make it!


We colored and labeled two maps this week. The first was a map of the United States with our four neighbors labeled: Mexico, Canada, the Atlantic Ocean, and the Pacific Ocean. The next day we labeled all of the continents on a map of the world to see where the United States was in the grand scheme of things.


Notice how Millie chose to sit in with us for this activity? And would you believe she colored that entire map?!


In history, we studied the Vikings. Here's the Viking notebook page Hannah made to add to her United States notebook.


One of our book basket books was a Viking arts & crafts book, and we followed the directions in it to make a paper mache Viking helmet and a pizza box Viking shield. We tried to get the girls to pose as fierce Viking warriors for this picture, but from the pajamas on their bodies to the grins on their faces, you can see there's not a fierce bone in these Vikings' bodies!


I picked up a neat little resource over the summer called Interactive 3-D Maps: American History , and it happened to have a Viking map in it that we made. It showed the route Erik the Red took from Iceland to Greenland and the route Leif Ericsson took from Greenland to Newfoundland. The girls both had fun making it, but Millie has stopped to play with it every time she has walked by the counter.


In science, we looked at what science is and what, exactly, a scientist does. In a nutshell, they ask questions, come up with theories, conduct experiments, and observe their results. Then we conducted a simple experiment to go through this scientific process. Our experiment was to see if adding salt to water would help things to float in it. The results were pretty obvious!



Our Bible study this year is looking at the names of Jesus. This week, we emphasized that every name has a meaning, and we learned the meanings of the girls' names.

Hannah = Favor, grace
Elizabeth = My God is a vow.
Camille = Pure, chaste
Renee = Born again

One of Hannah's friends gave her a silk screen t-shirt designer for her birthday, and she has been asking every single day if she can "pleeeeease make a t-shirt today." I figured this was a great opportunity to let the girls make some shirts and just add their names to them. That way every time they get their shirts out to wear them, they'll remember what their names mean. (Well, in theory, anyway.) I think they turned out really cute!


We also made a dozen sugar cookies, and one night for dinner we put everyone's name on a cookie. We had eight cookies left over, so we made another message to hopefully segue us into next week's Bible lessons.


And this final picture . . . well, it doesn't have anything at all to do with school. It's just a picture of Millie that's so stinkin' cute I had to include it somewhere. Oh, wait . . . she's wearing red, white, and blue. Does that count?!


All in all, this was a wonderful first week, and I'd say without a doubt we're off to a great start!

The Adventure of a Lifetime

It's hard to believe it, but on Monday Hannah will start 2nd grade. Can this really be our third year to homeschool?! Time flies when you're having fun!

I thought this week I'd give you a virtual peek at our bookshelves so you know what we'll be doing for the upcoming year.

Our main curriculum is My Father's World, which includes Bible, history/geography, science, art, and music. All we have to do is add our own math and language arts to the mix and we're ready to roll. This year we're using Adventures in My Father's World, which is basically American History and Geography for 2nd and 3rd graders. Ready to see our resources? Let's go browse the shelves!


Bible

We started reading Leading Little Ones to God at the breakfast table over the summer. We've all enjoyed it and Millie seems to be learning from it, so we'll stick with that until it's finished. For the MFW Bible lessons, we'll use either Hannah's new NIrV Bible or her NIV Bible we used last year. Honestly, I think she prefers using the NIV because it makes her feel grown-up, but she is pretty jazzed about this new Bible that came with her curriculum.


History/Geography

• Adventures in My Father's World Teacher's Manual
• The Story of the U.S.
• Student Sheets
• Map of the U.S./map of the world
• American Pioneers and Patriots by Caroline D. Emerson
• North American Indians by Marie and Douglas Gorsline
• Red, White, and Blue by John Herman
• The Thanksgiving Story by Alice Dalgliesh
• The 4th of July Story by Alice Dalgliesh
• Celebrate America CD
• Squanto, Friend of the Pilgrims by Clyde Robert Bulla
• The Courage of Sarah Noble by Alice Dalgliesh
• On the Banks of Plum Creek by Laura Ingalls Wilder
• Sarah Whitcher's Story by Elizabeth Yates
• In Grandma's Attic by Arleta Richardson
• Mountain Born by Elizabeth Yates
• Farmer Boy by Laura Ingalls Wilder
• Interactive 3-D Maps: American History by Donald M. Silver and Patricia J. Wynne (not included with MFW package)
• The American Dream CD (not included with MFW package)
• Little Hands Celebrate America! by Jill Frankel Hauser (not included with MFW package)
• Plus whatever great books we find on our topic at the library each week!

Science

• The Usborne Internet-Linked First Encyclopedia of Science
• Usborne Science with Air
• Usborne Science in the Kitchen
• Birds, Nests and Eggs by Mel Boring
• My First Magnet Kit
• The Magic School Bus: A Journey Into the Human Body science kit

English


We'll be using Preparing to Build, which is Rod & Staff's 2nd grade grammar and writing curriculum. This was the first curriculum I picked out when we decided to homeschool. Grammar nerd that I am, I love everything about it!


Spelling


We started All About Spelling in April of last year, and Hannah loved it! We still have five lessons left in Level 1, so we'll finish those lessons, then continue with Level 2. If we continue to work at last year's pace, we'll be able to finish Level 2 and Level 3 this year. ("Level" does not mean "grade level." It's just the next book in the series.)


Math


This year we're switching back to Singapore Math. I do not want to be a curriculum hopper, but Hannah absolutely hated CLE Math when we switched to it last year. Did I say she hated it? Good. Because when I say she hated it, I mean she hated it! The whole experience didn't exactly gel with my "teach them to love to learn" philosophy, so we tossed CLE aside and went back to Singapore.

Since our new books arrived, the child has been begging me to let her start her new math this week, but I keep telling her she has to wait until school starts on Monday. I have a feeling she's going to fly through 1A, slow down a little for 1B, and definitely work at a more normal pace for 2A, if we even get that far this year. We may use the Intensive Practice books and the Challenging Word Problem books over the summer break to keep her fresh and sharpen her skills, but we'll just have to wait and see.


Singapore Math is a great program, but it is lacking in basic math fact drills. After a year of CLE, I don't think Hannah ever wants to see another flash card in her life! (But I will say her facts through 10 are solid, and all thanks goes to CLE Math!) Anyway, I got several games we can play to memorize math facts in a fun way. Giggle Facts is a set of 50 games that helps reinforce addition and subtraction facts. RightStart Math games are not only good to help learn math facts but also for logic skills. Rainbow Rock is a computer game put out by Singapore math. And FlashMaster is an electronic version of flash cards. (But shhh! Don't tell Hannah that!)


Art


We're using I Can Do All Things, which is the art curriculum that came with our MFW package. I decided to go ahead and purchase the DVDs, as well, so Hannah can see and hear the artist/author as he teaches each lesson. The book is divided into four categories: Beginning Drawing, Colored Pencils, Colored Markers, and Beginning Painting.


Music


This year we'll do a composer study of Tchaikovsky, which is part of Adventures in My Father's World. We'll also use the Alfred's Piano series for piano lessons.

• The Story of Tchaikovsky in Words and Music CD
• Tchaikovsky: Swan Lake, Sleeping Beauty, Nutcracker Highlights CD
• The Nutcracker Ballet retold by Deborah Hautzig
• Tchaikovsky Discovers America CD (not included in the MFW package)
• Alfred's Basic Piano Prep Course Lesson Book Level A
• Alfred's Basic Piano Prep Course Theory Book Level A
• Alfred's Basic Piano Prep Course Activity & Ear Training Book Level A
• Alfred's Basic Piano Prep Course Notespeller Book Level A
• Alfred's Basic Piano Prep Course Technic Book Level A
• Alfred's Basic Piano Prep Course Solo Book Level A
• Alfred's Basic Piano Prep Course Christmas Joy Book Level A
  

Foreign Language

We decided to follow the MFW recommendations and add a foreign language this year. And since we live in Southeast Texas and have family in Argentina, it only makes sense for that foreign language to be Spanish. We're going to use a program called The Learnables this year, and next year we'll probably sell everything we own so we can afford to buy Rosetta Stone.


Homemaking


And finally, we're definitely keeping Lessons in Responsibility for Girls in our schedule. Homemaking was Hannah's favorite subject in school last year! She has expressed a desire to start sewing lately, so we'll also use Sewing Machine Fun for Kids as long as there is an interest there.

So there you have it! Sounds like a very full, very fun year, and we can't wait to get started on our Adventures in My Father's World!

I'm Baaa-aaaack!

So maybe it somehow escaped your attention, but for the past year I've taken a bloggy break.

It all started when I got behind on my school posts, and rather than skipping a few posts and (heaven forbid!) posting out of order, I tried to play catch-up. Big mistake. Big. Huge.

So I've decided to start posting again because, quite frankly, I like to take a stroll down Memory Lane every now and then, but Memory Lane is looking kind of like a ghost town these days! I've decided to go ahead and chronicle our 2nd grade adventures as they unfold, even though (gasp!) there's a huge one-year chunk of our lives that's missing from this blog.

Hopefully you'll check back one day and find the missing chunk, nicely summarized and placed right where it belongs. But for now, I'm just taking it one day at a time.

Life According to Millie (Part 3)

This was the moon we enjoyed on our way home from the grocery store tonight:


Sure, in the picture it looks a green pea that somehow caught fire and was thrown into the sky, but in reality it was a big, beautiful, full moon.

Millie must have been studying it in the back seat because she said, "Mom, does the moon start off in a big circle like that and then pieces just fall off?"

Loving the 3-year-old thought process,

Welcome, Summer!

Greg and I spent all of yeserday evening and the better part of today at the table saw cutting the wood that will eventually be our kitchen cabinets. When I went to check on the girls at one point, they had moved their picnic table under the shade and were each enjoying a popsicle with Sheba at their side.


No doubt about it: Summer's here!

Everything in Moderation

Hannah asked if she could put on her own sunscreen today. And "put it on" she did! I guess if a little is good, then a lot must be great!